Please explain. . .

[Bruce Alan Wilson]

No: HPFGUIDX 144164

Lupinlore:
"If this were to happen, I would use the books for compost.  JKR 
will have done nothing less than to make a hero out of a child 
abuser, which will be reprehensible beyond belief."


. . . How Snape is a child abuser?  He is a strict, harsh, and sometimes unfair teacher, but I can't see how any of his behavior 
amounts to child abuse, certainly not by the standards of his own 
society--which is, really, the only proper way to judge someone's 
behavior; to try to impose the mores of one society on another is 
wrong, we know that now, looking back on Europe and America's 
history of cultural imperialism--or even of our own.

I work in the criminal justice system; I've seen cases of REAL 
child abuse; Snape's actions towards any of his pupils, even 
Neville, come nowhere close. He's a meanie, all right, but not an 
abuser.  Calling anyone who is harsh or unfair to a child an 
'abuser' cheapens the term, as it draws attention away from REAL 
abuse.  (The Dursleys come closer, but compared to some of the 
cases I've seen and heard of, their efforts were halfhearted at 
best.)

"Bruce"